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Met officers investigating allegations of inappropriate payments to police and public officials arrested a 39-year-old journalist and two serving officers this morning.

All three men were arrested at their separate home addresses at 6am this morning by officers from Operation Elveden in connection with a number of suspected offences between 2004 and 2011.

A 39-year-old journalist was arrested in Hertfordshire on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and suspected conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office. He is being interviewed at a police station in north London.

He has been widely identified this morning as The Sun journalist Anthony France.

So far around 50 journalists have been arrested in the course of the Met's various phone hacking-related investigations.

A 47-year-old serving police officer with the Met’s Specialist Operations command was arrested in Surrey on suspected misconduct in a public office and suspected corruption contrary to the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906. He will be interviewed at a Surrey police station.

A 30-year-old serving police officer in the Met’s Specialist Crime and Operations command was arrested in Surrey on suspected misconduct in a public office and suspected corruption contrary to the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906. He is being interviewed at a south London police station.

Fifty-six people have now been arrested in connection with the Operation Elveden probe.

The Met said a number of searches also are being carried out.

In a statement the force said today's arrests were the result of information provided to police by News Corporation's Management and Standards Committee, adding:

They relate to suspected payments to police officers and are not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately